Naruto Zombies
by Keith B. Real
Summary: A mysterious rain cloud turns the inhabitants of Konoha into cannibals, all except for a few who must now try and survive.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One.**

Many people left their homes to watch the purple clouds rolling over the horizon towards Konoha. Timid people opted to go inside before the clouds came, and just before the braver ones decided that getting under a roof would be a good idea as well, the clouds were upon them.

The rain was purple and putrid smelling. It made people's skin tingle and itch as they rushed inside and tried to wipe it off. The stuff was thicker than water, and it seemed to stain as their skin absorbed it.

There was time to mutter of who or what was responsible. While there were many theories, the most prevalent was that it was the Village of Hidden Rain's doing. They also had time to worry over what the substance's effects were. Aside from stinking and giving the skin a slight purple tint, nothing could be ascertained. Even Tsunade, along with the village's best medical ninja, couldn't tell until it happened.

First, everyone who had been drenched in the purple rain died abruptly. Those who had simply been splashed worried they might soon follow, but none did. As the horror of the attack's effectiveness was sinking in, as people were realizing just how much damage had been done, the bodies of the dead got up.

The emotional blow from so many people being dead, followed by the shock of their corpses rising to attack, was a lethal combo. Many powerful ninja who had not been affected fell when the dead attacked, either unable to dispatch a loved one or simply caught off guard.

Even more horrible and detrimental was that anyone bitten, who wasn't torn to pieces, lived long enough only to sicken, die, and rise again.

Sakura Haruno, fifteen years old, was lying in her bed with a cold cloth resting on her large forehead. She had been in bed with a common head cold for the past two days; the only time she had gotten up was when her father came in to tell her about the mysterious purple clouds. She had sat up to watch, but hadn't gone outside. When her parents had come in covered in the purple substance, she had taken great care not to come into contact with it.

Both of her parents were now lying dead in their bedroom upstairs. Killing them with a kunai once they died and got up again had been hard, but not as hard as carrying them upstairs and placing them next to one another. It was the closest thing to a burial she would be able to give them for a long time, and she had to accept it.

While she waited for her fever to subside, she had plenty of time to think. Staying in her room seemed like a good idea, considering what she knew about the situation. There was a large number of people outside (she had taken to calling them zombies) who seemed to want nothing more than to devour human flesh. All they needed to do was land one bite and it was over. Even to a skilled ninja, who wasn't sick, it was in an extremely hazardous situation.

She wanted to think that her friends were still alive, but that seemed unlikely as she vaguely remembered seeing several of them outside before the rain came down. If they hadn't been drenched, then the odds were against them that they hadn't been bitten. She herself had narrowly avoided her parents gnashing teeth.

Every time she thought of her parents, her mind seemed to wander off the subject. She hadn't cried when they died, nor had she felt anything when she killed them. She felt sad while laying them out on their bed, but it was no more than the sadness of losing a pet or being teased in school.

She thought something might be wrong with her, but then decided that she was simply numb due to the immensity of it all. Nearly everyone she knew was likely dead; the horror was too unthinkable; her mind couldn't wrap around it.

It was her head-cold that was causing her the most discomfort, not her grief. Being a medical ninja trained by the Hokage personally, she found it ironic that there was very little she could do for her own cold. Actually, there was a lot she could do, but it would require moving around the house either during daylight or with a light on; all things which might attract the attention of the zombies outside.

She could hear them outside of her window. Luckily it wasn't at head level, so they couldn't peer in and see her. They were dumb, but not dumb like they were in movies. She could here them talking, mostly to themselves, about eating. They also complained that their skin itched along with other guttural, incoherent mutterings.

If she heard anyone enter the house, she could sit up and be ready fight; she wasn't so sick she was helpless. She had changed into her ninja clothes after taking care of her parents, and had plenty of kunai and shurikans in a pouch at her side.

The front door slid open, making her roll off the bed and draw two kunai; one for throwing and the other for short-range stabbing. Straining her ears and vowing to pop an Aspirin after this was over, she crept towards the door to her room. Whoever it was, was only paying lip service to stealth, a thought that gave her some comfort. The zombies, even the shinobi among them, didn't seem to know how to be sneaky.

She peeked around the corner and saw the back of Shikamaru as he looked cautiously into her living room. Getting ready to throw a kunai through his eye socket, she whispered "Shikamaru."

He turned, ready to move, but relaxed when saw her. Tiptoeing down the hall and keeping low, he made his way to Sakura and retreated with her into her bedroom. "You're alive," he said.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Somehow. My parents aren't…"

Shikamaru's face was sullen, which wasn't unusual, but there was a sadness to it that hadn't been there before. "Same here. My father was outside when it rained. He bit my mother after he died."

"Did you…?"

"No," he said. "I got out of the house and made my way across the rooftops. I couldn't do it…"

She didn't know how to make someone feel better about not killing their zombie parents, so she didn't try. "Are there any other survivors?" she asked.

"I looked in all of the likely places," he said. "All of them are overrun with zombies. I only saw you through your window from the roof across the street."

Sakura sighed heavily, looking at the floor. The situation according to Shikamaru was about as bleak as she had imagined it being. "Do you think anyone escaped the village?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Maybe. They might also be hiding. There are hidden spots all over Konoha, but like I said, the village is crawling with zombies and it's hard to get to them."

"Too many to fight?"

Shikamaru sat down on the floor with his legs crossed. He looked tired as well as bereaved and befuddled. "Yeah. From what I've seen, they're pretty savage, and some of the shinobi haven't quite forgotten their training. I haven't seen any use of chakra though, thank God."

Holding her warm forehead, she now wanted nothing more than to sleep. "What are we going to do? You've been a Chunin longer than I have."

"I need some sleep," he said. "I've been up all day and night, running and looking for others. I'd like to go to the Hokage's office one more time, just to check, but…"

Sakura put up a hand to stop him. "Good idea. If you can do me a favor and gather some things in the house and mix them like I tell you to, it might make my fever go away. We can both sleep safely here if we're quiet and set traps."

Shikamaru smiled wryly. "Traps, good idea. Should've been the first thing I suggested…"

"You're tired and you've been through a lot. Let's just do like we planned and see what happens," Sakura said, hoping she was reassuring Shikamaru.

She told him what he needed to get, where to get it, and what to do with it in order to speed the curing of her cold. She couldn't hear him go about his business, now truly trying to be sneaky. Feeling better that someone other than her was alive, she lay back down on her bed and covered her forehead once again with the cloth.

**To be continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two.**

Sakura's eyes fluttered open and she smacked her lips; the taste of the medicine she had instructed Shikamaru to make was still in her mouth. He had used more tea leaves than she would have liked, but the stuff had done the trick. Her fever was gone and aside from some stiffness, she was back to full health.

There was some guilt residing in her as well. She hadn't gone out of her way to get over her fever, wanting a bit of a break from her training and using illness as an excuse. If she had gotten back on her feet in a prompt manner, she might have been outside when the rain came. Being a slacker had saved her life, while her friends and family had perished.

Still too numb to fully accept all of that, she sat up and looked around for Shikamaru. He was sitting with his back to her door, his head down and eyes closed. Hearing her bed creak as she got up, he looked up at her. His eyes were red around the edges, and Sakura wondered if he had been crying while she was asleep.

"Ready to go check the Hokage's office?" Sakura asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he said. "I didn't see anyone in the window when I first looked. The place was wrecked, but being the office of the Hokage, it's likely there's a hidden door that either Tsunade or Shizune might have used to go somewhere."

"Then lets go and get it over with," Sakura said.

Shikamaru stood and Sakura followed him up the stairs. The door to her parents bedroom was shut, saving her the urge to glance inside for one last look. They had been dead for a little while, and Sakura was sure it wouldn't make for a pretty sight. Using a window at the end of the hall, they made their way onto the roof; an easy feat for ninjas.

It was early in the morning and what Sakura had taken to be dew on the roof was actually the purple substance that had caused all of this. She frantically began brushing it off her hands and onto her shorts, but Shikamaru shook his head. "Casual contact won't hurt you," he said. "You've got to be practically soaked in the stuff, or bitten, for it to take effect."

Sakura pinched her fingers together, feeling the stuff. It seemed thinner now and the putrid smell had changed somewhat…it still smelled of rotten meat, but there was a difference. "I think it might have lost its effect since it came down," she said, knowing that some substances did that. "I wish I knew what it was…people were saying that it was an attack from Hidden Rain."

Shikamaru shrugged, looking towards the mountain depicting the faces of past Hokages. "If it was an attack by Rain, then it came from the wrong direction."

"They could have launched it from somewhere else, to throw us off," Sakura said, wondering if she should even bother discussing such things with someone as smart as Shikamaru.

"They could have, yes," he said. "But if that's the case, then they didn't know how effective it would be. It hit us so hard, there's really no need to be sneaky about it. It's not like we'll be able to retaliate anytime soon…or ever."

Walking up to the peak of the roof and looking over Konoha, Shikamaru's words rung true. Far from being deserted, the streets were teeming with movement. Slow, aimless, hungry, movement. What looked like everyone in the village was out milling around; their skin tinted purple as they searched for something to eat.

Sakura had to look away from those who had found something, lest she vomit. Every dead body had with it five or six zombies crowding around it. Most got down on all fours and simply chewed at the corpse like stray dogs, while a few had ripped off a body part or a lump of guts, then retreated to a corner to dine.

"Oh, God," Sakura said, unable to hold back vomit. She turned away from him and expelled some of the medicine she had taken earlier. Her stomach hurt as she began dry heaving, and she was forced to sit down.

"You get used to it pretty quick," Shikamaru said. "I lost my lunch when I got a good look at the town too."

Sakura got up, resolving not to vomit again. Taking deep breaths, she rejoined Shikamaru at the peak of the roof. "Okay, lets go," she said, running down the roof and leaping over onto the next in the direction of the Hokages office, near the base of the cliff with the carved faces.

The rooftops were much slicker than Sakura had anticipated and she nearly slipped. Using her chakra to get a grip, she soon had no trouble making her way across the roofs of the ruined village.

When the reached the building they hoped to find somebody alive in, her heart sank. The street outside as well as what looked like the first floor, were swarming with zombies. Many had made kills in the street and were eating. She felt the urge to puke again, but fought it down.

There was a telephone wire stretching from the building they were on to the one they wanted to be in. Aside from that, the only other way was to head down the street a few blocks and hop over to the side the Hokage building was on. "Will that wire hold our weight?" Sakura whispered, pointing.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said. "I'll try it. I'm heavier than you, so if it holds me, you should be fine."

She stood in front of him as he walked towards the wire. "Are you crazy, why take the chance? Lets just go down a few blocks where there aren't so many."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and looked bored. "There are zombies down there too. Less maybe, but it's dangerous either way. We need to take care of this quick."

Sakura gritted her teeth. Even in a nightmare such as this, with all that had happened, Shikamaru was as lazy as ever. "Alright, fine. You go first, and don't expect me to jump down there and save you if you fall."

The corner of Shikamaru's mouth twitched into a smile. "Same old Sakura," he said, walking around her towards the wire. He tested it with his foot and feeling confident, began walking across; his chakra more than any sense of balance keeping him from falling off.

The wire sagged and shook, as Shikamaru plodded along, keeping an eye to the ground in case he fell and needed to fight for his life. His passage did not go unnoticed by the dead bellow. Those who had pushed off corpses by stronger, more aggressive zombies all looked up and stretched their arms upward. When they began wailing, Sakura thought she might go insane.

She didn't recognize anyone from the crowd, except for possibly the owner of the ramen noodle stand Naruto loved to eat at so often. It was the first time she had put any serious thought about who might still be alive. She found herself making a list of priorities; ranking those who she hoped to see the most. Naruto, Ino, Tsunade, maybe even Rock Lee.

She forced it from her mind when Shikamaru reached the other side of the wire. She had no choice in who had lived or died, and would simply have to take what she got. With a sigh, she followed in Shikamaru's footsteps across the wire.

As with Shikamaru, the wire sagged and swayed a little as she walked, her chakra keeping her from falling. Looking down at the screaming, bloodstained crowd, she couldn't help but notice that they were getting closer. She also noticed the sound of the telephone wire grinding against wood as her weight ripped it from the wall behind her.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru shouted as she tumbled off the wire towards the dozens of hungry mouths bellow. She could think of nothing to do but focus chakra into her arm and fist, a technique Tsunade had shown her that would give her massive amounts of strength.

Hitting the ground knuckles first with all of her considerable might, she sent a powerful shockwave radiating outward, knocking the zombies off their feet. With them briefly out of commission, she looked to the telephone wire to see of there was any hope of her climbing up it to where Shikamaru was.

Although he was on the balcony waving for her to climb the wire, she opted against it. The zombies were getting to their feet quickly and crawling over the ripples in the ground she had made. Drawing two kunai, she bolted for the side of the building. Jumping into the air, she delivered two swift kicks to the faces of two zombies, knocking them over into other zombies. Hitting the ground running, she drove her kunai into the temple of a female zombie, pulling it out as she collapsed.

When she reached the wall, there was no turning back. She couldn't risk another ground strike this close to the building, worried she might collapse it. She briefly wondered if she should simply break through the wall, but decided not too, not knowing what was on the other side. Instead, she opted to use finesse. Focusing chakra into her feet, she ran up the side of the wall, topping out onto the same balcony Shikamaru stood on.

She sat down, catching her breath and sheathing her kunai after wiping it off. "Sakura, are you alright?" Shikamaru said, running over.

"I'm fine," she said, looking down and breathing heavily, more from terror than exhaustion. "I wasn't bitten."

"Sorry. We should've gone down a few blocks and crossed to this side where there weren't so many of them."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "You're right, we might not have much time to find whoever might be hiding."

"No, it's not alright," Shikamaru said. "It was a stupid risk and it almost cost you your life. I should've known better."

"I didn't have to listen," she said, slightly louder than she had intended. It was difficult to be heard over the wails of the zombies bellow, some of which were articulating words and sentences; not at all a comforting thought.

"let's just check inside," Shikamaru said. "If nothing else, I can get my head on straight. The noise is starting to bug me."

Sakura agreed and followed him in through a door seemingly meant to be used by shinobi who were used to making their way around via rooftops. It lead directly into Tsunade's office, where the morning light shined over a chaotic scene. Papers littered the floor, obscuring the carpet while chairs and file cabinets were turned over. Sitting at Tsunade's desk was Shizune, her bloody face buried deep within Tonton's body, eating what was inside.

Shizune looked up, her purple and blood stained face seemed to twist and brighten at the sight of human meat. Leaving the pig on the table, she stood up, knocking the chair she was sitting in over. "Meat!" she shouted, running around the desk towards the two.

Shikamaru was quick to throw a kunai through her eye socket, killing her. Sakura could almost feel her mind doing its best to reject what she had just seen. She had learned a lot from Shizune over the past year, and had always liked Tonton. Seeing them this way was too much; in a way, she was glad Shikamaru had killed her.

"Shizune," Sakura said, feeling hot tears come to her eyes as Shikamaru removed his kunai from Shizune's head. He did it gently, with respect. Somehow that made it worse to look at.

"I didn't see her when I looked through the window from across the street the other day," Shikamaru said, dryly. "I'm not sure what that means."

Sakura didn't want to think about what it meant. Doing so would mean thinking about what Shizune was before the rain fell; a person. A skilled medical ninja who cared, had been reduced to a single-minded corpse that only wanted to eat meat. "Let's just look for that secret passage you think might exist," she said, wishing she hadn't sounded so sarcastic.

Rolling his eyes, Shikamaru began searching the walls on the far side of the room, while Sakura arranged Shizune and Tonton's bodies on the floor next to one another. There was nothing to cover their corpses with, so she helped Shikamaru in his search.

They didn't find any seams in the wall, nor was there anything in the room that turned out to be a switch. "Nothing," Sakura said. "We could try searching the building…"

"We're not done yet," Shikamaru said, looking at the ceiling. "There, that panel in the ceiling." He pointed to a spot above Sakura's head. She looked up and saw that one of the ceiling tiles was slightly ajar.

Sakura dragged over a chair and was about to stand on it when Shikamaru laid a hand on her shoulder. "Careful, there's no telling what's up there."

Nodding, Sakura drew a kunai and stood up on the chair. Sliding the panel back, ready to stab, she looked to see if there was some kind if escape route through the ceiling. It was dark above the panels, but she could make out something grey and metallic just over the lip of the ceiling. She reached up, grabbed it, and pulled. Whatever it was, it was solid and seemed like it would hold her weight.

"I think we found it," she said, looking at Shikamaru. "It looks like someone could climb up into here."

"I knew there had to be something like that here," Shikamaru said. "Looks like it was used, too."

"Do you think Tsunade escaped?" Sakura asked.

Looking down at Shizune's corpse, Shikamaru grimaced and looked away. "I guess that's one possible scenario," he said. "I'd be careful crawling in there though. The Hokage might not exactly be in her right mind and she might mistake you for a zombie."

"I'll be careful," she said, hoisting herself up into the ceiling with one arm. It was dark, but she could feel the steel platform in front of her leading into the depths of the building. "Are you coming up too?"

She couldn't see Shikamaru, but something told her he had taken one last look at the body of Shizune before stepping up onto the chair. "Right behind you," he said.

Not blaming him for not wanting to be in the same room with Shizune's body, Sakura began crawling forward, mindful of spots where the platform might suddenly give out and send her tumbling down into what could possibly be a roomful of hungry zombies.

They crawled for several minutes. The steel support they moved across took many sharp angles, but thankfully didn't branch off into different paths. Sakura had no clue where she was in the building, but knew she had reached the end of her journey when her head thumped hard into the wall.

"Ouch!" she said, rubbing her sizable forehead. She felt Shikamaru's head briefly bump her rear and heard him recoil backward, nearly falling off into the soft tiles of the ceiling bellow. "It's the end."

"Look for a handle or a button or something," Shikamaru said.

Sakura ran her hand over the wall, feeling the rough wood. There was a gap near the bottom she slid her fingers under and pulled. The wall swung upward, revealing that it was a little door, big enough to admit one human if he or she crawled.

Light flooded the area and Sakura had to blink. Before she was able to see, she felt a pair of hands grip her by the shoulders and pull her though as though she weighed nothing. The next thing Sakura knew, she was flat on her back, winded, looking up at Tsunade.

Her sensei was holding a kunai and looking down on her with a scowl. Sakura thought she might be a zombie for a brief moment, but there was no purple tint to her skin. Tsunade looked form Sakura to Shikamaru and lowered her blade. "Sorry," she said, sitting down on a stool.

Sakura sat up and looked around. The room she was in was lined with monitor screens depicting various spots all over Konoha. While the video images were not a pretty sight in the least, the room was tidy and surprisingly spacious. There looked to be a door for a bathroom, a small kitchen, and boxes of what looked like food. "What is this place?" Sakura asked, standing.

"It's basically a panic room," Tsunade said. Her face was ashen and her normally bright eyes seemed dull and red-rimmed. "If there's some kind of disaster, the Hokage can, if she so desires, retreat to here and issue orders as need be, hence all the screens you see."

"How long have you been here?" Shikamaru asked, climbing into the room.

"Since Shizune…" Tsunade began, only her eyes began to tear up and she buried her face in her hands. "I couldn't…had to run…"

Neither knew what to say about Shizune, only that it might not be a good idea to mention that they had killed her. "Is anyone else alive?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade gave one hard sob and seemed to compose herself. "I don't know," she said. "The monitors…I can't look at them for very long."

Sakura could see why. Each screen was showcasing a scene of unimaginable horror. Mostly it was crowds of dead people moving, searching for food, getting into half-hearted, short scuffles. A few screens showed groups of zombies that had found food; those, Sakura couldn't look at.

"I'm sorry," Tsunade said, sounding a little bit more like herself. "I'm the Hokage and I'm falling apart. Is it only you two?"

"So far as we know," Shikamaru said.

"Well…I'm glad you're alive," she said. "I suppose you're wondering what we should do."

Sakura nodded. "I was thinking we should try to find other survivors. Maybe work on a cure…"

"No," Tsunade said. "There's no cure. They're dead. There's no cure for dead."

Sakura gulped, not expecting such an abrupt and final answer. "Alright, but…"

"Yes," Tsunade said, "survivors. We should round up anyone left alive in the village and then get out."

"That's why we came here," Shikamaru said. "I've been all over town, traveling by rooftop, and Sakura was the only person I was able to find. The only reason we're here now is because we guessed lucky."

Tsunade crossed her arms and looked at the two of them. Sakura wasn't sure if it was pride or skepticism on the woman's face, and perhaps it was a bit of both. "I'm glad your training, or luck as it may be, got you here, don't get me wrong, but…" she pursed her lips, wondering if she should utter her thoughts. "I can't believe, out of all the shinobi in Konoha, you two are the only ones who made it."

Sakura and Shikamaru looked at one another, unsure of how to take Tsunade's sentiment. Shikamaru shrugged and Sakura gave a weak smile. "We found it hard to believe too," Sakura said.

"Then it's settled," Tsunade said. "There must be other survivors. They've either escaped or are in hiding. First, we'll search all the likely places, thoroughly. If we don't find anyone, we escape and see if anyone else did the same."

"Right," both Sakura and Shikamaru said, nodding in unison.

As Tsunade and Shikamaru began discussing search patterns and tactics, Sakura cast a dark glance at the monitors. She decided she'd better get used to the sight, as she'd be looking at it up close and personal very soon.

**To be continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three.**

Before leaving, the three of them ate a large meal and used the facilities. Tsunade, using some herbs left in a pouch on her belt, cooked up a tea that obliterated the last remnants of Sakura's cold. Feeling much better physically, she felt as though she might be able to survive the day.

Following Shikamaru down the little tunnel in the ceiling, she wasn't sure a meal, some medicine, and a shower, was enough preparation for eventual necessity of putting a few of her dead friends out of their misery. Her main thought was of Ino. They'd recently begun to repair their friendship. To have all of that work get washed away in such a manner would be almost too much to bear.

She shook her head and chided herself inwardly. If she could put steel through her own dead parent's brains, there was no trauma she couldn't handle. In a strange way, which she didn't like to think about, she was proud of herself for doing it. Tsunade hadn't been able to kill Shizune and Shikamaru hadn't been able to kill his parents, but she, Sakura, had.

It really was a stupid, evil thing to be proud of and she imagined herself punching the thought senseless and locking it in a box deep within her mind. Her thoughts turned to Tsunade behind her as Shikamaru reached the exit of the secret passage. "Sensei," she said. "Could you let me and Shikamaru go down first? There's something we need to take care of."

"I need to see it," Tsunade said. "I need to see it, or I'll never accept it."

Shikamaru jumped down from the ceiling into the office after looking it over for threats. Sakura landed next to him, followed by Tsunade. Shizune was still on the floor next to Tonton. Shizune was purple and decayed to the point where, if you didn't know her, she wasn't immediately recognizable. Her clothes and hair made her more akin to the idea of Shizune, more than the woman herself.

Tsunade walked across the room to the window and ripped down a curtain. Sakura kicked herself inwardly for not thinking of it before. Laying the curtain over her dead friend, Tsunade wiped at her eyes.

"She deserved better than me," Tsunade said. She coughed and gave her eyes one last rub. "Let's go. Our duty is to the living."

Sakura followed Shikamaru and Tsunade out onto the balcony overlooking Konoha, or what was left of it. She supposed Tsunade was either suffering an overload of sorrow and had gone numb, or was just good at burying her emotions. Either way, now that Tsunade was with them, she felt much better about their chances of survival, even though they were all about to split up.

They had discussed their plan of action back in the Hokage Hideout. Konoha had been divided up into three sections: each to be searched thoroughly. Although they had no idea who was alive or where they were, the sections had been divided in such a way as to lesson the odds of one of them running into a close friend.

"Here's where we split," Tsunade said. "Shikamaru, take this." She handed him a small container filled with a green balm. "It's a generic medicine, good for just about any sort of wound there is. Even those with only basic medical training can use it. You're not a medical ninja, so I'm sending it with you."

Shikamaru took it and pocketed it. "I just thought of something," Shikamaru said. "If the survivors we find are either too wounded to move, or aren't shinobi, we might run into problems moving them."

Tsunade nodded and rubbed her chin. "If that happens, get them someplace safe, if they're not already, and mark where they are. We'll worry about consolidating survivors once we've found some."

"When and where should we meet?" Sakura asked.

"Back here," Tsunade said, "before dark. We'll spend the night in the hideout if we don't find any survivors we can take in with us."

Sakura looked down on the street. She had tuned out the wails and the stench of the dead bellow her long enough to feel reassured by Tsunade and Shikamaru's plans. Just seeing the Hokage alive had been a great relief. Aside from being a leader, she was a powerful ninja to boot. Without the element of surprise, Sakura didn't think the zombies would be much of a match for any of the surviving shinobi, much less Tsunade.

"Then let's go," Sakura said.

"Wait," Tsunade said, grabbing them both by the shoulders and pulling them in. "Under no circumstances are you to underestimate them. From what I was able to watch on the monitors, they're extremely aggressive and don't feel pain. The only way to kill one is a solid shot to the brain. There's a reason for the fact that it's just the three of us standing here. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded, feeling a little ashamed at her prior assessment of the zombies' threat level. It was true what Tsunade said. Many powerful ninja were dead. Ninja who had her well outclassed had been taken by surprise; luck was the main reason she was still breathing and if she forgot that, she'd die.

"Good," Tsunade said. "Go. Be careful."

Without further delay, Sakura set off towards the rooftops adjacent to the building they were in. When she got down to the end, she leapt down from the roof and began making her way quickly across the street towards a house. The dozen or so undead milling about the area saw her when she hit the ground and were on her immediately. She darted around them and ducked their clumsy gropes.

One nearly had her as she twisted away from the grip of a fat man missing his forearm. It was an old woman wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Her blocking Sakura's path had been more out of luck than the thing's speed. Sakura ducked and hit the old woman low in the hips with her shoulder. She didn't need to apply much strength to lift the woman up and over her back, letting her hit the dirt with a wet thump.

Reaching the wall, she focused her chakra into her feet and scaled it easily, leaving the rotting ones bellow her to scratch at the wall like angry dogs that run a cat up a tree. She was in Shikamaru's section of Konoha still. She looked back and didn't see him. Assuming he had entered the building's connecting to the Hokage's, she continued on her way.

It took half an hour to reach the end of town she was to search. She only had a third of Konoha to search, but that was still a large area, and she suspected that this wasn't going to be a one-day affair.

She decided to start at the wall and work her way out. The Hyuga clan's compound was there and she figured if she was likely to find people alive, that was the place.

Reaching the wall that surrounded their compound was not difficult, neither was scaling it. Guards were the Hyuga's main line of defense. They didn't have much to fear from inside the village. Atop the wall, Sakura could see into the compound; a mini-neighborhood where the Hyuga's and their various relatives dwelled.

Her heart sunk when she saw that they hadn't fared any better than the rest of Konoha. Dead, purple and crimson stained Hyuga's were milling about the street. A few were chewing on corpses, keeping away the weaker zombies. Aggression seemed to be the determining factor for them, as Sakura watched a skinny, half-naked, woman shove a larger man backward after he attempted to take a bite from the severed foot she had found.

No matter how many times she saw it, it still made vomit well up in her throat. Forcing it down, she crouched and skirted the wall, keeping an eye out for any dead sentries that still might be up on the wall. As she moved, keeping an eye on the street bellow, she realized she had no idea how to go about looking for survivors.

Anyone in hiding was just that: in hiding. If she could see them, then the zombies could see them. She didn't see them congregating anyplace in particular, which made her think that all of the Hyuga's must be dead, or hiding inside in much the same manner as Tsunade had been.

She looked for the largest house in the compound and saw that it wasn't within leaping distance of the wall at any point. She'd have to make her way down to the street again and up onto the houses if she wanted to reach what she thought was the Hyuga main house.

Thinking back to the Chunin exam, where she had learned a little of how the Hyuga clan was structured, it seemed likely that the head family had retreated to the main house, if they hadn't been there already. The branch families would then have gone there to protect the head family. That meant that if Neji and Hinata were still alive, that's where she'd find them.

She drew two kunai and leapt from the wall, landing feet first on the shoulder's of a dead Hyuga, sending him sprawling forward. She hurled her blade into the eye socket of a zombie in front of her, retrieving it from the falling body as she ran past it at top speed.

A bit sad that no one was around to see such an impressive feat from her, she kicked another zombie nearby, one she didn't necessarily have to kick, and reached the wall of a house. Problem was, it was made from paper. All the chakra control in the world wouldn't keep it from ripping if she tried to climb it.

Cursing her carelessness, she kicked backward and caught the zombie coming up on her in the stomach, sending it backward into two others. Her attempt to retreat back to the wall was blocked by a large number of zombies. She didn't remember seeing them from the wall, and again chided herself for being careless.

Using her fine chakra control, she focused energy into her fist and arm and sent a punch into the ground with the idea of repeating the same trick she had employed earlier. She knew it was a bust the second she realized what she was standing on: sand.

A large ripple went through the earth, but nothing anywhere near what it would take to knock the crowd coming at her off balance. She thought of fighting her way back to the wall, but disregarded it as stupid. She'd risk getting bitten if she tried to fight her way through the crowd.

Instead, she tore through the paper wall of the house and hoped nothing was waiting for her on the inside. Nothing was, but there were other holes in the walls, something she should've noticed before jumping down off the wall.

She spotted a set of stairs and bolted for them as dozens of zombies tore in after her. Setting foot on the first step, she looked up and saw a man dressed as a shinobi with purple stained skin. He stretched out his arms and lost his balance coming down the stairs. Sakura leapt over him as she felt a hand brush across her thigh. The jumble of zombies behind her bought a few seconds, which she used to climb the stairs.

When she reached the top, she punched the stairwell with all of her might, focusing it downward and at an angle so as not to destroy the floor in front of her. Shielding her face from the storm of splinters, she felt her forearm crack and bleed as wooden shrapnel struck her.

Breathing heavily, he looked down at the mass of bodies now buried under what once the stairs. Limbs were flailing from between boards more out of frustration than pain, while zombies that hadn't been hit stumbled over the pile of rubble and moaned up at Sakura, heedless of their fallen counterparts.

Getting up quickly, determined not to make anymore stupid mistakes, she checked around to make sure there were no zombies on the second floor with her. All she could see was a hallway with sliding doors leading into what were most likely bedrooms. She took the fact that nothing had come rushing out to meet her as a good sign that she was safe.

Still, not wanting to make anymore errors and let Tsunade down, she methodically checked the doors to each of the rooms on the second floor. Most looked as though they hadn't seen any use, making Sakura think that all of the sick had been taken to some centralized location instead of up to their own beds. All of those people dying and coming back in one place at one time, but have made for a nightmare.

Confident that she was safe, she took a look through a hallway window towards the building she wanted. She had one more street to cross before reaching rooftops that would carry her to the large pagoda where she assumed any Hyuga survivors might be hiding.

There was a telephone wire running from the building she was in to the one across the street. She could get to it if she climbed up onto the roof. Biting her lip, she looked at the wire and remembered what had happened the last time. Shikamaru had likely been the one to weaken it, but the idea of ending up surrounded in the middle of the sandy street was not a pleasant one.

Not having much of a choice, she opened the window and climbed out onto the sill. Grabbing the lip of the roof above her, she hoisted herself out and up. Making her way to the wire and watching all of the zombies bellow gather beneath her, she kept one kunai handy.

The wire was the only way. If she fell, the blade she held in her right hand was her only way out. She'd use it on her own throat and hope the end came before she felt their teeth. Focusing chakra into her feet, she stepped out into the line. It bowed and swayed, but didn't make the horrible ripping noise signifying that it was being torn from the wall behind her.

Once she was over the center, she calmed down. Shaking, she stepped off the wire and onto the roof of the other house. Before her was a straight shot to the pagoda. She hoped sincerely that she found people alive there who would know a better way out of the Hyuga neighborhood. She didn't want to do another wire walk over zombies if she could help it.

The view of the pagoda was not exactly encouraging. The large doors in the front were wide open and the steps leading up were smeared with blood. Small picnics were taking place on the steps and from what Sakura could see, inside as well. She sat down and rested her head on her knees. Her thinking had been more wishful than she had realized. Her mind had only paid lip service to the idea that all of the Hyuga's were dead; she hadn't expected to actually see it.

A creak from the pagoda made her pick her head up. Standing in the window of the pagoda, only slightly higher up than where she was sitting, was Hinata Hyuga, waving. She looked as though she had been through some serious emotional distress, but considering who she was, Hinata looked like she was doing alright.

"Sakura!" she shouted in her high pitched voice. The sound drew the attention of the zombies bellow that hadn't been able to get a meal.

"Hinata!" Sakura shouted back, the damage already being done. "Are you alright?"

Hinata nodded, slowly. She held up a finger, signaling for Sakura to wait a moment. She returned to the window with a grappling hook. Swinging it around inside, she let it fly with precision through the open window, where it clattered behind Sakura.

She wasted no time in securing her end to the roof as Hinata did the same on her end. With the rope steady, Hinata walked across, using the same chakra technique Sakura had been employing with wires.

They embraced briefly once Hinata reached the rooftop. "I thought you were all dead," Sakura said, stepping back to make sure Hinata didn't have any bite marks on her.

Hinata's eyes fell, and the brief shine she had while greeting Sakura vanished. "I-I think I'm the only one. The rain took so many…there weren't many left to fight them when they came back; it was so unexpected…I…"

"I understand," Sakura said. "I was sick with a cold, so I didn't get rained on. Just about everyone else did though."

"Is it just you?" Hinata asked.

"No," Sakura said, looking back over Konoha. "Shikamaru and the Hokage are alive as well. They're searching Konoha separately."

"Have you seen Naruto?" she asked with a hint of pleading in her voice.

Naruto. Sakura was surprised that she hadn't thought much about him up until now. She wished she new more about the nature of the fox demon bound inside him. The fact that it wasn't loose and leveling what was left of Konoha might mean that he was still alive, or it might not; she didn't know.

"I haven't seen him," Sakura said. "Shikamaru is checking the part of town where he lives, but I don't know if he was in town or not when the rain hit."

Hinata hung her head and let out a short sigh. "I guess we have to hope he was off training, and that he won't be caught by surprise when he comes back."

"Right." Sakura looked out over the set of houses where the Hyuga's lived. Many zombies were beginning to gather in the streets bellow them; the ones in the immediate area that had been attracted by Hinata's trek across the rope were causing others to come over and investigate as well.

Even though she had succeeded in finding Hinata, the idea of looking through each and every building while simultaneously avoiding the hundreds of zombies now seemed overwhelming. Hinata seemed to be thinking along similar lines, considering the look on her face as she stared out over Konoha with a depressed, blank, look in her pupilless white eyes.

Sakura smacked her forehead. "Hinata, your Byakugan…it can see through walls and things, right?"

Her voice seemed to bring Hinata back to the present reality. "Huh, oh yes, it can," she said, seemingly realizing where Sakura was going with this. "I can help you search."

Sakura smiled and nodded, hoping they would find other Byakugan users. Simply looking down through the roof to tell if anyone inside was alive would be far better than sweeping each house.

Hinata's face darkened as veins began to protrude from the area around her eyes, turning her soft, round face into something far more menacing. Even though her gaze was piercing and terrible, Sakura could see the disappointment in it.

"No one in this building," she said. "Or the pagoda."

Sakura knew little about the Byakugan's range and wondered how far they would have to travel over the neighborhood to perform a thorough sweep. "What about over there?" Sakura asked, pointing to the far end of the block.

"No one on this end is alive," Hinata said, her voice soft and shaking. "We'll have to get to the top of that building over there before I'll know about the rest."

Sakura picked up the grappling hook and began shaking the rope, dislodging it from whatever Hinata had attached it to. With the grappling hook in hand, she looked to see just how they were going to cross the zombie infested street bellow and get to the houses on the other side.

As Sakura was winding up to throw the hook and try to latch it onto the next roof over, Hinata put her hand on her shoulder. "Wait," she said. Sakura let the hook fall and turned to see what Hinata wanted. Her Byakugan was still activated and it made looking into her eyes difficult. "I don't think the rooftops are the best way."

Sakura cocked an eyebrow and wondered what Hinata was talking about. "Well, we can't take the street; it's too dangerous."

"Why don't we take storm drains? You can use your strength to break into the basements and I can use Byakugan to see which way to go," Hinata said. Some strength had returned to her voice; the taking charge of the situation was working to dissuade her fear and despair.

"Are the storm drains clear?" Sakura asked, wondering how they would gain access to them. She would have to find a house that wasn't infested, unlike the one beneath their feet, and then find someway to break into the drainage system without leaving a path for the zombies to follow.

"All the ones I can see are clear," Hinata said. "We can't get in through the basement of this house, of course."

"Which one should we try, then?" Sakura asked.

Hinata looked around and stopped when she faced the house adjacent to theirs. "That one only has a few, and…" she stopped, her voice cracking.

"And what?" Sakura asked, vainly looking at the house as though she too would see it.

"Neji," she said. "He's one of them."

Sakura's heart sunk. She had never held the highest opinion of Neji, even though she had begun to see him as less of a jerk in recent years. Still, she had immense respect for his abilities as a ninja and had hoped he would be able to help. "I'm sorry," Sakura said. "We can try another house if…"

"No, it's the safest one," Hinata said, swallowing hard. "I think…I think I might have to do some things I don't want to do before the end of this."

Sakura nodded, walking over towards the house Hinata had pointed out. She hadn't expected such a statement to come from the timid Hyuga girl. While Hinata had grown since the Chunin exams, she was a far cry from someone like Neji or even Sasuke. Sakura wondered just how much horror Hinata had seen since the rain fell and she wondered how much it had changed the girl.

As she walked, she also thought of Sasuke. If the rain had only fallen over Konoha, he might very well be alright. Her thoughts then turned to Orochimaru. The man, if he could even be classified as such, had attempted to destroy Konoha once already. The rain might very well be his doing and if that was the case, she didn't know how she felt about Sasuke. Still, the nature of the attack heavily suggested that it was Hidden Rain's doing; she didn't know.

Chiding herself for losing focus due to unknowns, she looked for a spot to throw the hook onto the other house's rooftop. There was an open window only slightly lower than the rooftop they were on. "What's through that window?" Sakura asked.

"Three dead bodies covered in sheets," Hinata said. "Regular dead though."

Sakura suddenly felt a little bad for Hinata as she threw the hook through the window. Being able to see through walls at nearly 360 degrees likely opened up an entire world of awful sights. It might have explained why she hadn't been eager to use her gift in order to escape.

Getting across the street and into the house, while making Sakura nervous, went off without a problem. The sheets covering the bodies lying in the spare bedroom were stained with purple fluid and blood. The patterns suggested that the people had been wounded many times before being killed by a lethal shot to the head. Sakura wondered how many people they had managed to infect before being stopped.

They left the bodies in the room and headed out into the hallway. They must have made enough noise to attract the attention of what was down bellow. Loud, clumsy footsteps thudded over the floor and made their way up the stairs. Sakura drew two kunai and waited, standing back from the stairs with the rail between her and whatever was on its way up.

She heard Hinata made a small sound and turned to see her Byakugan deactivate. Turning back, she saw that it was Neji who had reached the top of the stairs, followed by two purple stained zombies, civilians by the look of their clothes.

Neji turned. His intelligent, observant face had now become a mask of frantic hunger. He bolted around the railing and ran towards Sakura with his arms outstretched and his mouth gaping.

Sakura sent her kunai deep into his forehead. He kept running forward and flopped into his face, nearly hitting Sakura's feet. Before she could to anything about the other two, two more kunai flew past her. One struck the nearest zombie through the eye, while the other went low and hit the remaining one in the neck. Sakura threw her other blade and killed the one Hinata hadn't.

A calm silence followed, broken only by Hinata's soft sobs. Sakura rolled Neji over and quickly pulled her kunai from his skull. She made haste to retrieve the others and head down the stairs, while Hinata followed.

"Are there anymore?" Sakura asked, handing back to Hinata her weapons. There were no tears streaming from her eyes, but her cousins death, his second one at least, had clearly upset her.

"N-no," she said. "That was it. If we go into the basement I can show you where to dig to get to the drainage tunnels."

Thankfully, they found the door to the basement before attracting attention from outside. Hinata went down first, and Sakura made sure the door to the basement was shut and locked behind them. The basement was cluttered and dim, the only light coming from a dirty window level with the ground outside.

Hinata had activated her Byakugan once again and was waling towards a wall past a pile of cardboard boxes. She shunted them aside and gestured to the lower part of the wall. "Through there, about four meters," Hinata said.

Sakura cracked her knuckles and began moving chakra around in her body. Two quick punches to the brick wall cracked it open, letting her get a grip on large slabs and pulling them away. She dug as fast as she could, mindful of the loose dirt above her head and wondering if it might collapse on her. Feeling like a gopher, she soon struck another layer of stone, breaking through into an open area that was the drainage tunnel. Sakura nearly gagged once air from the tunnel quaffed over her. It smelled rotten, worse than standing downwind from a mob of zombies.

The source of the smell was obvious; the drainage tunnel, built to funnel off excess rain, was filled with the purple substance that had drenched Konoha, causing the zombie plague.

Sakura stepped back out of the tunnel, coughing. She wanted to yell at Hinata for having the stupid idea, but knew full well she hadn't foreseen the situation either.

Holding her nose, Hinata looked in through the tunnel and moaned. "I didn't think of that," she said. "How could I have been so stupid?"

Waving the air in front of her face, Sakura shook her head. "I didn't think of it either."

A loud crash from the other side of the basement made her turn her head. Jutting through the small basement window, level with the ground, was the torso of one of the zombies. It had seen the two women and jumped through. As it slid to the floor, landing on its back, more came clamoring through.

Even though they were coming in one by one, Sakura knew full well she couldn't stand there and kill them all day; they needed to run. Sakura made for the stairs, while out of the corner of her eye, she watched Hinata bolt for the tunnel.

"Hinata, no!" she shouted, stopping long enough to watch Hinata's back disappear.

Fighting the urge to chase after her, Sakura headed up the stairs and through the basement door. Shutting it behind her, she headed upstairs and made her way up onto the roof.

Safe, and with the grappling hook by her side, she sat down and hung her head between her knees. She desperately wanted to cry, but no tears came. She had found Hinata and lost her in an entirely too short an amount of time. She didn't know if Hinata was dead or not, but judging by the amount of purple fluid in the tunnel and the fact that she was likely being chased by zombies with no way out, didn't give Sakura high hopes.

She picked her head up and wondered what to do next.

**To be continued…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four.**

The wall of noise and odor rising up from the masses bellow her seemed far off and muted. The task of searching the entire neighborhood for survivors now seemed daunting to the point of impossible. Finding Hinata alive and rescuing her again, even more so.

She looked down at the small grates than collected water runoff for the drainage tunnels, thinking she might catch a glimpse of Hinata running through them. She fancied she could see movement; too much to be Hinata, but enough to be her pursuers. It meant nothing. Dozens might have followed her in and were now chasing her all over. Or perhaps they had caught her already and now couldn't find their way out.

She had a decision to make: leave Hinata for dead and try her luck elsewhere, or make an attempt to find out what happened to her. Searching the entire city without a Byakugan user now seemed silly, but going after Hinata into the drainage tunnels seemed suicidal.

The idea of using her chakra to stick to the tunnels side to keep from being soaked in the purple fluid floated into her mind, making her pay more attention to the ground bellow. She was looking for a good spot to bust through and make a run for it, when she heard something slap onto the roof behind her.

She spun around with her weapons drawn, thinking the zombies had learned to climb. Her heart nearly exploded from joy as she saw Hinata crawling up onto the roof, looking a little haggard but none the worse for wear.

"Hinata!" Sakura shouted, running over towards her and looking her over for wounds. Her feet looked dry as well.

Hinata was breathing hard, but managed a weak smile. "Looks like I went the wrong way," she said.

Sakura wanted to apologize for seemingly abandoning her, but agreed that Hinata had gone in the wrong direction. "How did you…?"

"I ran down the side of the tunnel. Used my chakra to stick to the wall. When I got far enough ahead of them, I sort of came to my senses. I know a chakra technique that keeps enemies away and attacks at the same time."

Sakura grinned, reminding herself that Hinata wasn't exactly helpless. In a pinch, the two of them could likely take many, many, zombies down with them; even more if Tsunade and Shikamaru were there as well. Perhaps after all of the survivors had been found, they could go on a cleanup mission, but right now, they needed to conserve their energy.

"Should we try the tunnels again?" Sakura asked.

Hinata shook her head. "They're not safe anymore. And even if we did stick to the walls, the smell is enough to make you faint. My chakra moved some of the air around, and that's the only reason I could breath."

Hinata slumped down on the roof and began taking deep breaths. The air of Konoha had been fouled by the teeming masses of corpses beneath their feet. Still, it was preferable to the air in the tunnels bellow. "So rooftops it is then," Sakura said, picking up the grappling hook.

"No," Hinata said, standing up again. "I ran a long way before I stopped. I got to see the rest of the neighborhood. We can go."

There, that was it. the entire Hyuga clan, save one, had been wiped out. Another little piece adding to the realization that Konoha, her home, was no more. It made Sakura want to cry again, but like before, no tears came. "Alright then. Let's scan the rest of my area and then we'll go meet up with the others. We might end up using you to look over the whole village."

Hinata nodded, happy to be useful. Using the grappling hook along with patience, they made their way to the wall surrounding the Hyuga homes. Using the rooftops, they began canvassing Sakura's third of Konoha.

Sakura was elated at the speed in which they covered ground. Hinata's Byakugan was saving her an unfathomable amount of trouble, plus it was far more reliable than searching the normal way.

Her good feeling came to and end when Hinata stopped and grew silent. "What is it?" Sakura asked.

"It's…wait…we have to hurry," Hinata said, pointing to a hotel on the other side of the street surrounded by zombies.

"What, why, is someone alive?" Sakura asked, following Hinata over to a section of housing with its roof a little closer to the hotel than the one they were on.

"It's Ino," Hinata said. "She's locked in a bathroom and she's hurt."

"Hurt, how?" Sakura asked, hurling the grappling hook over to the hotel and watching the hook smash through one of the windows.

"Her leg looks hurt," Hinata said. "Choji is there too, only he's…"

"A zombie," Sakura said, fixing the other end of the rope around a ventilation stack. Making the rope tight, she used her chakra to walk across, thinking about how she was going to have to kill Choji in a few minutes. She caught herself wondering if his eating habits from life had carried over and made him an even fiercer zombie than normal, but shook that thought for Ino.

Her friend was alive. All of that patching up they had done hadn't been a waste after all. The real waste was the years they spent as rivals, Sakura thought. If she could rescue Ino, they might end up having even more years to make up for the mistake.

Sakura peered through the window as she entered, making sure it was clear. She waited for Hinata to come in before proceeding forward, trusting her to warn of threats before she opened any doors.

"Which way?" Sakura said, going out into the hall.

"Left." Hinata's voice was distant, but held a ring of urgency. "Watch out, there are a few of them around the corner."

As if on cue, four zombies came around the bend in the hallway. Three civilians and one shinobi. The Shinobi was covered in bite marks, mostly on the face. The soft flesh covering his teeth had been torn off and he was missing an eye. Sakura thought he looked familiar, but with his wounds, it was impossible to tell who he had been.

Sakura sent a kunai flying at the shinobi and let out a small gasp when he ducked. The weapon embedded into the wall behind the zombies as they came lurching forward, the shinobi taking the lead.

She rushed forward to meet them and planted a powerful kick into the chest of the zombified shinobi. He flew backward, knocking down two zombies behind him. Sakura thought they might be women, but they had been torn up to the point where it was too hard to tell in the heat of the moment.

The third zombie, a teenage boy, lunged at Sakura. She drove her elbow into the side of his head, crushing his skull and sending him to the ground. "Duck!" Hinata shouted.

Sakura ducked and watched two flashes of metal go above her head where she had been standing. One struck a zombie in the temple, making it shudder and go limp. The other hit the shinobi in the throat as he stood up; if he felt pain or even noticed the knife sticking out of his trachea, he gave no sign.

Taking a few steps back to the stairwell that would have taken them downstairs, she grabbed into the banister and pulled, taking a two meter section of thick wood with her.

The shinobi was charging again. This time, Sakura met him with the chunk of wood, driving it into face with all of her strength. The front of his skull caved like a melon and he dropped to his knees, finally dead. Using the wood like a javelin, Sakura hurled it at the last zombie. The shot went low and penetrated the things chest, imbedding itself in the wall and pinning the zombie.

Plucking the kunai from the throat of the downed shinobi, she drove it through the temple of the one she had pinned. Now that the battle was over, an eerie silence had passed over the house, broken only by a rhythmic pounding, coming from down the hallway.

"That's Choji," Hinata said. "We should hurry."

Sakura gave the carnage one look, picked up their weapons, and ran towards the sound of Choji pounding on the bathroom door. There was no time to reflect on the brutality she had just committed. Her one thought as she ran was that if she didn't think about any of it now, there would be less to remember later. Perhaps her brain would let her forget so long as she didn't dwell on anything.

The pounding stopped as Sakura reached the door to the room Ino and Choji were in. It was slightly ajar and Sakura wasted no time in kicking it the rest of the way open. Choji was standing still by the bathroom door, the thick wood scratched and dented from his efforts to enter. Given more time, Sakura thought he would've been able to break through.

His hair and face were stained purple and his face sported deep scratches. "Sakura," he said taking a step towards her with his arms outstretched. "Sakura."

Sakura was paralyzed. He was saying her name. He recognized her. Was there something of the real Choji still left inside him? Before he had spoken, Sakura had been ready to kill Choji; the rationalization being that he was no longer the boy she had known for years. It had been the same with Neji, only killing Neji had taken less mental prepping.

"Choji?" she said, taking a step back and getting ready to knock him backward if and when he attacked her. "Choji, it's me, Sakura. Say something."

"Sakura," Choji said, licking his lips. Dark fluid coated his tongue and teeth. She now noticed the large amount of dried blood on his chest. Choji had been eating.

"Sakura," he said again, knocking over a coffee table. "Meat…eat…"

She had to end this and she had to end it now. Seeing someone she had known and liked reduced to such a state was too much. It was like seeing Shizune all over again. Air brushed past her hear and suddenly there was a blade sticking out of Choji's eye. Sakura turned to see Hinata with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't be," Sakura said, rushing over to the bathroom door. It was locked, so she tore the knob off. On the floor was Ino, who began sliding herself backward towards the bathtub with one leg. The other was bent at a horribly odd angle at the knee; the flesh surrounding it a deep shade of purple.

"Ino, it's me," Sakura said, rushing over to her friend.

"Sakura," Ino said, breathing heavily, her fear subsiding as she saw that Sakura wasn't a zombie. "C-Choji, he, he's…"

"At peace now," Sakura said. "How's your leg?"

Ino looked down at her bent knee. "Broken," she said. "At the knee. I was running up the stairs and got knocked backward."

"You haven't been bitten, have you?" Sakura said, hoping that finding Ino alive wasn't too good to be true.

"No," Ino said defensively. "I wasn't rained on either, in case you couldn't tell."

Sakura smiled, glad to see Ino was still Ino. "I'm just glad you're alive," Sakura said. "So many people are dead."

Ino's face fell and the pain in her leg seemed to show more on her face. "I know…my parents are dead…so is Choji."

"Shikamaru is alive," Sakura said. "So is the Hokage. Hinata is with me, too."

"He is?" Ino said, her face brightening. "Where is he?"

"Searching Konoha for survivors along with the Hokage. I found Hinata earlier today. She found you with her Byakugan."

Ino nodded, giving her leg a wary look. "I haven't been able to do much with my leg…not with Choji out there."

Sakura reached into a pouch in her belt and fished out a small pill. "Pain killer," she said. "We'll wait for it to take effect, then I'll set your leg and heal it."

Ino took the pill and swallowed it. Sakura noticed that Ino didn't have a side pouch in which she would have carried her own medical equipment. Either she had used it all, or had been caught off guard. "Are we going to be safe for a while, Hinata?" Sakura asked, looking at Ino's knee, thinking about which direction it needed to be bent before she made the cells regenerate.

"Downstairs isn't safe, but I don't think any of them know we're up here," Hinata said, turning her head. "We should be quiet though."

They passed a few minutes in silence, waiting for the pain medication to take effect. "I think it's ready," Ino said, looking uncertain.

Sakura grabbed Ino by the ankle and just above the knee. "On three. One, two, three." Sakura straitened Ino's leg with a sickening crunch. Ino let out a squeak of pain, shut her eyes and gritted her teeth so hard Sakura thought she might chip a tooth. "There, I think everything's straight," Sakura said.

Ino opened her eyes, now shiny with tears. "It had better be, because we're not doing that again." Ino's pained smile made Sakura feel a little more confident. With the knee straight, she began pouring chakra into the wound, evening out Ino's own chakra and causing the swelling to go down.

By the time the treatment was complete, Ino's knee still looked bruised. "Nothing to do but let it heal," Sakura said. "Can you stand?"

Ino could, but needed Sakura's help. Together, they limped out into the room to see if Ino could stand. For a second it looked like she might fall, but she steadied herself and attempted to hobble on her own with success. She wouldn't be able to outrun anything or climb very well, but she was still mobile. "Give me a few more of those pills," Ino said. "In case."

Sakura passed her two pills and noticed that Hinata had covered Choji's body with part of the rug. She thought she saw Ino giving the lump a glance, but couldn't tell. "Thanks," Ino said, stuffing the pills into her pocket. "What now?"

Both Hinata and Ino were looking at Sakura. She suddenly felt unsure of herself with two people, one of them injured, looking to her to make decisions. Decisions that, if wrong, could end their lives. She didn't know what to do.

"Okay…" Sakura said, thinking. "Well, we need to finish our sweep. But Ino, you can't get around with your leg like it is."

Ino put a little more weight on her leg and winced. "No, not really. Maybe if you went and found the Hokage, she could do a better job."

It sounded like Ino had insulted Sakura, but she knew it was true. Tsunade would be able to fix Ino's leg within minutes and have her ready to travel. "Alright, here's the plan," Sakura said. "I want you two to hide here. Hinata, you can keep an eye out in case the zombies decide there's something up here for them to eat. If they come, Ino, you swallow another pill and get onto the roof. We'll worry about the added damage to it later."

"Where are you going?" Hinata asked.

"To find the Hokage. Like Ino said, she's a much better healer than I am. She'll have Ino walking in no time and then we can search for more survivors without having to leave Ino alone someplace." Aside from thinking this was the smart thing to do, she was also curious to know how Tsunade and Shikamaru were doing. If they were alive and if they had found anybody had been pressing questions on her mind, although she hadn't quite realized it until now.

"When should we expect you back?" Ino asked.

"I don't know," Sakura said. "We're supposed to meet up before dark near the Hokage's office building. If I don't find her before then, I'll lead her back her when we meet. So, shortly after dark at the latest."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "That's a long time to wait." Her gaze had drifted back over to Choji's covered body. "I'm not waiting in this room, regardless."

"I understand," Sakura said. "Anyone will do, just so long as you can bar the door and keep out of sight. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Alright then," Ino said. "I guess it's the best course of action. We'll be down the hall."

They parted with nods, refusing to say goodbye. Sakura made her way back down the hall, wanting to exit onto the roof where the least amount of zombies would notice her and come near the walls. She didn't want anymore than was necessary finding their way into the building.

Houses were clustered tighter towards the center of the village and there were more trees between the buildings. Sakura took no chances and slowly made her way towards the center of town where she hoped she would spot Tsunade, or be spotted in turn.

The zombie population was heaviest in the town square. Standing atop a high building and looking down on what had once been a bustling center of activity and life, Sakura had time to think. That wasn't a good thing, as she had no new information. Who had done this to them and why was still a mystery. Nor did she have the luxury of mourning the loss of her home, family, and friends.

She let out a loud, shrill scream, pouring all of her confusion, despair and anger into her throat, letting some of the emotions go. She took a deep breath and screamed again, this time slumping down and beginning to sob. What she felt was pain, but it felt good to let it out.

The soft sound of feet hitting the roof behind her made her turn her head sharply. It was Tsunade. The Hokage looked none the worse for wear, but looked worried as she walked towards Sakura. "What happened? Did you finish your sweep already?"

Coughing and rubbing her eyes hard, she choked back the flood of emotions that had overtaken her and stood up, feeling embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me."

"I'm not one to talk," Tsunade said. "It's actually amazing how well you and Shikamaru have kept it together."

Shikamaru. Ino wanted to see Shikamaru. Shaking her head to clear it, Sakura pointed back the way she came. "I found Hinata Hyuga and Ino Yamanaka. Well, Hinata found Ino, but I found Hinata and…"

"So why aren't they with you?" Tsunade asked.

"Ino's leg is injured. I fixed the worst of it, but she still can't run or climb. I thought you might be able to fully restore it so she could move around on her own again."

Nodding, Tsunade extended her hand and helped Sakura to her feet. "And you left Hinata with her for protection. Good thinking."

The compliment made her feel a little better about having a breakdown as well as her decision to leave the two other girls. Her chief worry had been returning only to find them both dead. "Have you found anyone?" she asked.

Tsunade closed her eyes briefly. "Not alive. Most of what I've been doing is mercy killings. Just the people I knew well, or liked. We don't have the time right now to do them all."

The idea of having to kill everyone in Konoha at some point was not pleasant. She supposed that, given enough time, they could accomplish it. "Do you think that whoever did this will come here?" Sakura asked. "You know, to see their handiwork?"

Tsunade looked up at the sky, now clear and blue. "I don't know anymore than you do, but my instinct is telling me that this wasn't the work of enemy shinobi."

"Maybe it was some country then. A science project gone wrong or…"

"That could be it. Like I said, I really don't know. Still…"

The Hokage's face had taken on a thoughtful, distant tone. Sakura got the impression that the Hokage might have a better informed opinion on what had happened, but for some reason wasn't sharing. "What? What is it?"

Tsunade looked sharply at Sakura. For a moment it looked as though she would chastise her and tell her not to ask anymore questions, but her look softened. "That cloud was dropping that purple substance all over the ground as it came at us, and I'd guess that it kept doing so after it passed over. That means, that whoever unleashed it, if it was anybody at all, infected a massive, massive area of land and running water."

Her stomach felt like it might jump out of her body and leave forever. Her only thoughts had been of Konoha. She hadn't given consideration to whomever else might have been hit. "H-how far do you think it got?"

"Why don't we go see Ino?" Tsunade said, running over the edge of the building, slow enough to encourage Sakura to follow. As they ran over rooftops and leapt over tree branches to get across streets, Sakura shouted more questions.

"How bad do you think it is?" she shouted.

"I can't say for sure," Tsunade shouted back. "Lead the way; I don't know where you left them."

Out in front, it was harder to press Tsunade for her opinion. She had to think about their route and remember where the building she had left Ino and Hinata in was located.

When they reach the rooftop of their destination, Sakura stopped. "Hold up," she said. "At least tell me who you know is dead. Start with people I know."

Tsunade looked annoyed. "Why don't I tell the four of you together so I only have to say it once?"

Sakura nodded, ashamed for not thinking of that. She led Tsunade into the building and towards where she had first met up with Ino. Hinata walked out into the hallway to greet them. "Hokage," Hinata said. "It's good to see you." She bowed slightly.

"Could you all stop calling me Hokage?" she said, walking past Hinata and into the room she had come out of. Ino was lying on a couch with her wounded leg propped up on a pillow. "There's no more village to be a Hokage of."

None of them argued the point while she began focusing chakra into Ino's leg. A smile spread across the young woman's face as her knee healed before her eyes. She gave it a practice bend and immediately stood up. "No pain. Thanks, Ho…Tsunade."

"Don't mention it," Tsunade said. "And here we thought we'd have large clumps of survivors to look after…" her tone was light and playful, but everyone knew it really wasn't. "Ino, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"Your Mind Body Switch technique…will it work on a zombie?"

All of them went quiet, especially Ino. She seemed to be more appalled at the idea rather than confused by its logistics. "I…I don't know."

"How would you like to try it out?"

Once again, all were silent. The idea of being inside one of those creatures was quite possibly the most disturbing thing any of them had heard recently. "I-I guess I'd really rather not. With all do respect."

"Hinata can see through walls with her Byakugan. It keeps her, and anyone she's searching with, from needlessly risking their lives by going into a building where there's no one alive. If you could enter the mind of one of those things, you could do roughly the same thing."

Now Ino actually seemed to be considering it. "I guess I could try."

They were on the roof in short order. All eyes were on Ino as she selected a target at random and preformed her jutsu; the one that would put her mind into the body of a zombie, allowing her to control it. Tsunade stood behind her, waiting to catch her limp form after her mind left it.

Ino preformed the technique. Her hands fell from her forehead and her body went slack into Tsunade's arms. She let Ino gently down as she looked to see the results. The body of a young male zombie, a civilian who wasn't sporting too many wounds, went rigid and then slack.

Now it was looking around and down at itself as though it were someone who had just woken up from a bout of sleepwalking. It looked around with wide, fearful eyes, but wasn't attacked. It looked over at the rooftop and waved. "Looks like it worked," Sakura said.

The body of the zombie suddenly stumbled and collapsed. Ino's body twitched and sat up quickly, steadied by Tsunade. "Oh, dear God, it's awful," Ino said. "They still have minds but…"

Tsunade shook her a little. "But? But what? How much of them is left?" Her words were almost shouts, and Sakura now saw the other reason Tsunade had Ino do the Mind Body Switch technique.

"N-nothing," Ino said. "Aside from the basics and a little memory. Mostly they only want to eat."

"Why don't they eat one another?" Tsunade asked.

Ino looked confused. She had been put in quite a difficult spot without preparation. "I, uh…they want to eat…people. Fresh people…please, I don't want to think about it."

"You have to,' Tsunade said. "I need to know more about them. Is there anything in there on why they want to eat living human flesh?"

Ino shook her head, hard, sending her pony-tail whipping around. "No, no, no. There's no reason. They just want to eat people, I don't know why."

"Leave her alone," Sakura said. "Their brains won't tell us anything we don't already know."

Tsunade turned sharply on Sakura and looked like she was about to say something she had been meaning to say for a while. Instead, she seemed to deflate. Blowing a strand of hair from her face, she let go of Ino. "I'm sorry. I hate to admit this, but I'm completely in dark here. Any little bit we can learn would be invaluable."

"It's alright," Ino said. "I understand. I can go back in and use their bodies as scouts…"

"Good," Tsunade said. "That was my intention all along, I just thought…"

"Why don't Hinata and I finish my section of the town," Sakura said. "You and Ino can do yours."

"Actually, we'll find Shikamaru and Ino will help him. No offense kids, but I've got more tricks than all of you combined."

"We'll still meet before dark like we planned, right?" Sakura said.

"Of course. Shikamaru has to be brought up to speed. Assuming he hasn't already figured everything out."

Tsunade and Ino left, heading back towards the center of town. She was glad she wasn't going to be the one to tell Shikamaru that Choji was dead. They had been friends since they were young. Sakura didn't picture it being a pretty scene. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to be in the secret room come nightfall. It would be then that Tsunade would list off the dead.

"Let's get this done," Sakura said.

"Okay," Hinata said, sounding tired. Together, they continued their search using Hinata's Byakugan.

**To be continued…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five.**

The success of the morning had not prepared Sakura for the failure of the afternoon. Hinata's Byakugan had not spotted a single living soul, wounded or otherwise, anywhere in the neighborhoods they had been assigned to search.

As the sun began to dip into the horizon, they had to cast aside their desire to search again; Hinata being suddenly unsure of Byakugan's power in the face of poor results. "Maybe I made a mistake," she said. "I can see everything fine, but what if I just didn't notice?"

"We don't have time," Sakura said. As much as she hated to admit it, she didn't think Hinata had missed anything. Despite her lack of confidence at times, she was still a trained ninja. "We'll look tomorrow maybe."

They all met on the roof across the street from the building they would hole up in for the night. Shikamaru was looking surprisingly well. Sakura wondered if anyone had told him about Choji yet.

"Which one of you got Choji?" Shikamaru asked flatly.

Hinata went pale and for a moment said nothing. "I-I did," she said meekly.

"Thanks," Shikamaru said, nodding. "I wouldn't want him walking around like that."

"Let's go," Tsunade said. "I'm hungry and dehydrated."

That meant they were all hungry and dehydrated. Following Tsunade, they made their way over the rooftops and into the Hokage's office. Sakura noticed that Shizune's body, along with Tonton's, was gone. She figured Tsunade had taken the time to bury them somewhere.

That was another issue Sakura couldn't think of how to deal with. If they did end up killing all of Konoha's zombies, how would they dispose of them? Would burning cause purple, noxious fumes to rise up and infect them? One thing at a time, she told herself.

Safe in their hideout, they were all silent for the most part. The entire day had been spent on high alert, looking for survivors and looking out for their own survival. The temptation was to sleep, but all of them knew there was some palavering to be done before anyone rested.

Ino and Hinata set themselves to cooking up rations on the small stove, while the others made use of the bathroom. As they ate their food, they began to feel much better. Being able to take care of daily necessities and not be surrounded by hundreds of mindless cannibals was an uplifting experience.

With their stomachs full, all looked to Tsunade. It was understood that she would begin reciting the long list of their friends and family members who were no longer alive. "Why don't we start with you Sakura. Report," Tsunade said.

Annoyed that she was going to have to wait, Sakura took a deep breath. "I went to the Hyuga neighborhood first and found Hinata here. There was no one else. Neji had been infected, but we took care of it. We thought we might travel through the storm drains, but didn't realize they were filled with the purple stuff until it was too late. We then searched some more, using Hinata's Byakugan and found Ino…and Choji."

"Shikamaru, report," Tsunade said, hearing enough.

"Searching wasn't easy," Shikamaru said, flatly. "They were everywhere, and going into a house to search it was usually as pointless as it was dangerous. I didn't see anyone I knew, though."

He looked to Ino, wondering if she would continue the report from when she joined him. When she didn't, he continued. "Ino made searching easier, but even so, we didn't find anybody alive."

Once again, they all looked at Tsunade. Her eyes closed for a moment, and slowly opened. "Kakashi is dead. He was turned by the rain. I dispatched him as soon as I saw him in the crowd. Asuma and Kurenai are also dead."

The news fell over Sakura like a freezing blanket. Kakashi had seemed like too powerful a ninja to have been killed, yet with all the dead she wasn't exactly surprised at the news.

"Shino, Kiba, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Guy are dead as well," Tsunade said, finishing.

"Well that's it," Ino said. "Pretty much everybody who was likely to have lived is dead. We're it."

"No," Shikamaru said. "No one has seen or heard from Naruto."

All eyes went to the monitors that watched Konoha's street. The images of death and destruction hadn't changed much, aside from everything being cast in a cloak of darkness, the zombies only visible when they got near a street light. Naruto's status was still a mystery.

"He might have been off training when the rain came," Hinata said. "Maybe he's alive."

"Unless he was rained on while outside. He's the type of guy who wouldn't notice a purple cloud until it was over his head," Shikamaru said.

"The real question we need to ask is this," Tsunade said, cutting them off. "Do we stay here in Konoha and keep looking for Naruto, or anyone else, or do we leave?"

Sakura and Hinata exchanged looks, both remembering their desire to give the town one last going-over before turning in for the night. "I want to look again with Byakugan," Hinata said. "I have to be sure this is everybody."

Sakura nodded and noticed that Ino seemed to approve. Her eyebrow arched slightly when she saw the looks on Tsunade and Shikamaru's faces. Doubt had fallen over Tsunade, while Shikamaru clearly thought they were insane. "What?" Sakura said.

"How many times did you or Hinata nearly die today, Sakura?" Shikamaru asked. "In my case, I counted six before I hooked up with Ino. Together, we came close only twice. I'm sure the number was less for the Hokage…"

"Three times," Tsunade said. "Some of them like to play opossum, and don't call me Hokage. Tsunade will do."

"Sorry, Tsunade," Shikamaru said. "But you see, we've already looked the entire village over. The only reason the five of us are alive is because we were lucky. If we keep pressing our luck, it's going to run out."

Sakura shrugged, not sure that was a bad thing. She was far from being suicidal, but with the entire village of Konoha reduced to five people, her old life was gone. Depending on how much damage the cloud had done to the rest of the country, maybe even the world, her new life might not be all that great either.

"Hinata and I are going to search one more time. You can do what you want."

"I'm with Sakura," Ino said.

"Splitting up isn't a good idea," Tsunade said. "Whatever we do, we need to…"

"You're not the Hokage," Sakura said. "You said so yourself. Help us search or don't. The least you could do is secure a route out of town while we look."

Far from being angry, Tsunade sighed and nodded. "If you're set on risking your lives again for nothing, go ahead. Shikamaru and I will find someplace safe in the hills we can all retreat to when you're finished."

Shikamaru was glaring at Ino, but Sakura chose to ignore it. "Lets just sleep," she said. The idea was something they all agreed on. Their chakra levels had been taxed all day as well as their bodies. The food they had eaten and the safety of the room made them all tired, and they went to sleep quickly.

Sakura's eyes fluttered open, the light from the monitors above her head giving her the illusion of sunshine beaming through her window. Picking her head up, she saw from the screens that it was early in the morning. The dead of Konoha were still wandering around, the people they had killed had all been eaten for the most part. Sakura wondered if they might be harder to get around, what with no dead bodies to eat as a distraction.

She sat upright and rushed over to one of the monitors when she saw something orange flash on the screen. Looking carefully into a crowd of zombies, she saw what she had been dreading.

There was Naruto, dressed in his usual outfit stained in blood and torn in places. His blond hair was filthy and matted with blood, his bright blue eyes now clouded over with cataracts.

She looked for the button to turn the monitor off, but her tears blurred her vision. Instead, she punched the screen, breaking it and cutting her hand. As she sat down to sob, the others, awoken by her violence, got up in confusion.

"Sakura, what is it?" Tsunade asked, looking between Sakura's bloody hand and the broken screen.

"N-Naruto," she stammered. "He's dead. On the monitor…"

The reactions of the others seemed distant compared to the depth of her own sorrow. She thought she heard Hinata crying while Tsunade tried to comfort her, and she thought Shikamaru had cursed something under his breath, but it didn't matter at the moment. The boy she had watched come so far in life was now dead. Whatever greatness he had been destined for was now over with.

She felt as though the final stamp had been put on the situation. If Naruto was dead, everyone else must be dead as well. How the five of them were alive, she didn't know and thought it best not to ask, as there would never be an answer. Her former desire to search Konoha one last time was now non-existent.

Picking her head up, she got to her feet and inspected her hand. The cut wasn't deep and the amount of blood made it look much worse than it was. She opened a first-aid kit and went over the sink to dress her wound.

"Are you alright?" Tsunade asked, coming up behind her and leaving Ino to deal with Hinata.

"Fine," Sakura said. "It's worse than it looks…when I saw the monitor I wanted to turn it off, but I couldn't find the switch."

"We won't be needing them anymore, so don't worry about it. We'll load some of this food into packs and carry it out with us. We'll see what the surrounding forest is like and then make for the nearest village to see what's happened."

Sakura shrugged, not sure anywhere else would be much better. Since seeing Naruto, it now looked as though the entire world had ended. Perhaps there were survivors elsewhere and they would find them, but as for the state of the world they would have to live in, she couldn't say. "Okay. You and I can carry extra, I guess."

The others began quietly packing supplies for their journey while Sakura finished with her hand. With an extra heavy load on her back, she redistributed chakra to points on her body so she could carry the load easier. With their things packed, they made their way through the secret passage in the ceiling into the Hokage's old office.

"What's the best way out of town?" Ino asked, looking at Tsunade and Shikamaru.

"We should just scale the mountain behind this building," Shikamaru said. "There's no reason to go down there and mess with those zombies."

"There's one reason," Sakura said. "Naruto. We can't leave him walking around like that."

"And what if you get killed going after him?" Ino said. "I was all for risking our lives to find our living friends, but if we're just going off to kill a zombie then…"

"Then go, and I'll catch up later," Sakura said, curtly. "I'll set my pack down here and take it up with me when I go. I'll meet you at the top of the mountain."

None of the others looked happy at her going off to kill Naruto, but none argued. All of them had known the pain of having a loved one or a teammate become a zombie. "Alright then," Tsunade said. "We don't have time for these debates, so meet us up top and don't be too long. Don't do anything stupid either."

"What about the demon?" Shikamaru said, looking out over the town and frowning. "I don't know anything about it, but might killing him for good unleash it?"

"I doubt it," Tsunade said. "Once someone becomes a zombie, their life force leaves them. If the monster were going to be unleashed, this would have done it."

"Right," Sakura said, dropping her pack. "I'll catch up with you shortly."

No one argued further, the desire to leave Konoha overriding their desire to argue. Sakura didn't look back as she began hoping across rooftops towards the street she had seen Naruto wandering around on. The disaster had made identifying landmarks somewhat difficult, but she thought she knew the street she had seen him on.

When she reached it, she had to wipe her eyes to keep the tears from blurring them. Thinking she might not be able to find him, Sakura was close to giving up when she caught sight of his orange outfit amongst the swarming crowd bellow.

Testing the weight of her kunai, she whispered "Goodbye, Naruto," and threw it.

The knife flew straight and true towards the back of his head. Sakura didn't know what to think when his arm came up, seemingly without him noticing, and caught the knife.

More like it stabbed through his hand, but either way, he wasn't dead and had seen the attack coming. Sakura felt her legs go numb as Naruto's head swiveled around like something mechanical and he looked at her. His normally bright blue eyes had taken on a dark red pallor, as though they had filled with blood.

He bolted towards the building Sakura was standing on and ran up the side, leaping into the air as he reached the top of the wall. Sakura was too surprised to do much aside from back up and draw her weapons.

Naruto landed on the roof, sending shingles breaking off with his weight and force of landing. "You must be Sakura," Naruto said, his voice holding the edge of something bestial.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura stammered. "What's happened to you? You're infected…"

"Infected…" Naruto said, sounding less and less like Naruto the more he spoke. "Free is more like it."

"Free?" It suddenly dawned on her what the situation was. "Oh God, you're the fox demon aren't you?"

"Yes," the demon inside Naruto's body said. "Free isn't the right word though, is it? I'm still stuck in this pathetic body…but at least now I can control it. And you came just like I thought you might."

Sakura braced herself, ready to stab a blade through its head and hopefully kill it. Fox demon or not, it was still trapped inside a human corpse. She had a chance if she could keep her head. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I knew you were alive," it said. "I could smell you on the wind over the stench of the rest of these pests. I knew that if I waited, you would come to me."

It was creeping forward, ready to spring, watching her for any sudden movement. "What do you want with me?" she asked.

"To kill you," it said. Naruto's face had contorted into a wide, wicked grin. His teeth had all become needle sharp and now his eyes seemed to glow red, rather just be blood-filled. "The miserable pest who's body I've been trapped in was fixated on you. When he wasn't whining or trying to train or further whatever insipid goals he might have had. I got sick of it…so sick of it, I hate you."

She swallowed, now wishing she had just left Konoha with the others or that they would return to help her out. She supposed it didn't matter what the demon's reasons were; it wanted her dead and it was either it, or her. "Bring it on then, I haven't got all day," she said, hoping to sound braver than she felt.

It let out a howl of range and charged her a blinding pace. Sakura stabbed too late and caught it in the side of the head with her forearm. She felt Naruto's hands, now tipped with long fingernails, dig into her side briefly before the strength of her blow sent the demon flying off to her left.

It landed on all fours and began loping after her without missing a beat. Ignoring the pain in her side, she shoulder-rolled out of the way and turned, ready to stab again if it charged.

It skidded to a stop before falling off the roof and flipped over backward, twisting to face her, using it's body like no human ever would. "Good," it said. "Kill this body and free me."

"What?" she shouted, hoping the thing was bluffing.

"Or don't kill me. I'll go hunt down your friends after I'm finished with you and maybe one of them will do it."

It charged again, this time Sakura didn't try a killing blow. She fell into her back, letting her feet connect with Naruto's chest. She sent him through the air up and over he body, leaping to her own feet when he legs snapped forward again.

The kick had damaged the muscles in its midsection, she noticed as it got to its feet clumsily. Pain wasn't slowing down, but she saw that it was possible to cripple the creature. She wanted to kill it and give Naruto's body a proper burial, but couldn't risk loosing the fox demon.

"Try again," she said. "Maybe you'll get me this time."

Maybe it would, too. Her plan as it rushed towards her again was to catch it in a grapple and break as many bones as she could, knowing full well it might bite her and spread the disease.

It came at her low, but she ducked lower and stood off to the side. Catching the midsection in the crook of her elbow, she wrapped herself around the demon's stolen body and slid up to lock it in a full nelson. It nearly managed to bite her forearm as she locked her fingers behind its head.

The fact that it was Naruto's body was driven home as she looked at the back of his head. She almost couldn't bring herself to crush his spine, but the demon inside began shouting things. Terrible things only something living within Naruto his entire life would be able to know. Disgusted, she applied as much pressure as he strength could muster.

She felt and heard his skull separate from his spine as well as some of the vertebrae coming to pieces. Naruto's body went limp and she let him fall forward onto the roof.

It was still screaming, now nothing more than inarticulate howls of rage. She wanted to put a blade though its brain but stopped herself. She was certain that there was nothing of Naruto left inside and killing it would only risk setting the demon free. She bent down and undid his bandanna, being careful not to be bitten.

She couldn't bear to listen to the demon screech any longer. Remembering that they would likely come back to dispatch the remaining zombies, she tucked the headband into her pouch and left. Tsunade might know what to do with the demon later.

**Epilogue **

She met them in the woods outside Konoha. The purple fluid seemed to have had no effect on the trees or other plant life. It had killed many, many animals, but not all. They feared the dead animals might rise again, but it appeared as though they would not.

That the fluid only turned humans into zombies was cause for speculation amongst them. They kept coming back to Hidden Rain being the culprit, with the new idea that perhaps those in the Village of Hidden Rain had not quite intended to unleash their cloud weapon, or at least had underestimated the effects.

The nearest village had all but been obliterated. Hinata found one survivor, a woman who had been inside with a broken leg when the rain came. She was a widow and had lived alone. Wisely, she had remained hidden when the zombies appeared.

They returned to Konoha once before leaving it forever. The idea to kill every last zombie had been scraped; it was too dangerous and would've been pointless as well. They did retrieve Naruto's body, which had screamed itself hoarse. Rather than kill it, they dug a hole as deep as they could and buried the thing, trying not to think too much about how long it would take to go insane and or escape.

With everything in Konoha taken care of, they traveled the countryside viewing the devastation caused by the mysterious cloud. The longer they traveled, the more it became apparent that it would be years before they heard from anyone who had left Konoha before the rain came, or learned something useful about the mystery, if they ever did at all.

**The End. **


End file.
